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November 18, 2009

Walnut shell floating t-lights

This is the first of my Christmas crafty projects. I saved the walnut shells from the last time we had some and already had the t-lights in a drawer. I bought nothing specifically for this project at all - even my melting equipment was just a saucepan of boiling water with a trivet on the bottom and a clean glass jar.

Step 1: Split the t-light in half to remove the wick and stand...

Step 2: Put the wick and stand inside the walnut half...

Step 3: Heat up the water and pop the split wax discs into your glass container to melt...please make sure you protect the glass from the sides and bottom of the saucepan, as direct heat can shatter the glass. Also keep an eye on the water level and never let it drop too low. Once melted you can add essential oils to the wax - I added about 10-15 drops of Ylang Ylang - but you can use t-lights that have already been fragranced.

Step 4: line up your walnut halves - I used an old grill rack (with newspaper underneath) as the shells sat nicely and firmly between the spokes and didn't tip over. Next is the tricky bit: be careful not to burn yourself with hot wax. Remove your glass jar from the pan with thick oven gloves and rest it on a thick tea towel or pad. Then tip the jar at an angle with one hand so you can get a teaspoon in and fill up each shell with around 3-5 teaspoons of wax. You will have wax left over as each walnut doesn't quite take a whole t-light's-worth.

And there you have it - walnut shell floating t-lights!

The let the left over wax set and will keep it for another project another day....

Hi Steelkitten - love this idea. I have tried to use half walnut shells before but could never get them into neat halves. How do you do that? (It is probably something very simple and I am just being gormless!) Many thanks. Daisy